2010

Sudan president Omar al-Bashir may be accused of international war crimes and genocide in Darfur, but isn’t as evil as progressives like to claim, declares Simon Tisdall, as he explains al-Bashir’s role in the Sudanese elections.

It might have been the year of the iPad, but Wired looks back on the worst tech products of 2010. From the $500 JooJoo, an iPad wannabe with no apps and no internet, to the wearable videocamera that didn’t stay on the head, there were some tech shockers.

And the honour of the first Western film ever shown in censorship-loving North Korea goes to…envelope please… Bend it like Beckham! Sure, it was edited from 112 minutes down to just 60, but no other film can claim that title.

Quality TV is becoming more difficult to find each year. And not because there is so little of it, but rather it is coming from so many different sources. Dan Barrett offers his top picks for the silver screen.

We’ve seen all those pictures of snow bound New York, all those travellers stranded at airports. Must be a really cold snap in the northern hemisphere, right? Well, no, actually, explains Richard Farmer.

As part of your summer reading, delve into these questions on CO2, global warming and what levels of CO2 are “safe” or “traditional”, the latest by Amber Jamieson and Rooted’s ‘Ask a climate scientist’ series.

Angela Meyer, of Crikey’s book blog Literary Minded looks back at the year that was, from speaking at writers’ festivals, to publishing articles in magazines and commissioning guest book reviews via Twitter.

Photographer Steven Rhall lives up in the tiny NT town of Balgo. He writes of the first big fire of the season up his way, where fires can sometimes run for weeks — if not months — and burn-out huge tracts of land.

From an already parlous position in July-September, WA Labor is down a point in the latest Newspoll on both the primary vote, now at 29%, and two-party preferred, with the Coalition now leading 58-42, reports William Bowe.

It’s rare for a film to employ a non-linear multi timeline narrative as effectively as director Derek Cianfrance’s equal parts heart warming and heart wrenching story about a couple meeting and falling in love in one time period and enduring a bitter falling out in another, writes Luke Buckmaster.

Twice president of Venezuela, the victim of political coups, misuser of millions of dollars in public funds and mortal enemy of current president Hugo Chavez, Carlos Andrés Pérez died aged 88 on Christmas Day.

Read this intriguing indepth profile on recently released Aung San Suu Kyi, Crikey’s person of the decade. Interviewer Hannah Beech dodges government spies trailing her taxi in order to interview the famous Burmese political leader.

My dog and I have been in serious discussion over dinner about this Barack Obama fellow, says Richard Farmer. And the verdict, he says, is not good. The dog has put him under considerable pressure to be advocating a Republican vote in 2012.

If Australia is serious about having a satellite television service that reflects the country — unique in the region and vitally important to Indonesia — it needs to resource the project properly. A$20 million a year won’t do the job, declares Richard Laidlaw.

Queensland’s Gold Coast is a magical place where beautiful men and women do nothing but tan their perfectly sculpted bodies, and children run amok the beaches in theme parks. Well, that’s how Caroline Zielinski remembered it, but the latest trip showed something different.

Ben Sandilands got his hands on a leaked photo of the new Qantas A330-200 domestic business class, with middle seats and crummy legroom. Why, it must be a present for new Virgin Blue boss John Borghetti, the former Qantas executive general manager.

Joao Silva was a NY Times photographer in Iraq and Afghanistan until a recent incident where he stepped on a landmine and lost both his legs. As Silva recovers in hospital, his replacement, Michael Kamber, tells of the undeniable pull felt by the war photographer.

There’s a rising number of domestic abuse cases in Afghanistan and the US military wonders if it is a new Taliban technique to help gain access to US military bases and gather intelligence, since military hospitals care for the wounded.

Christmas is officially over, the turkey is eaten and all the leftover ham sandwiches eaten. But what to do with the rotting Christmas tree still sitting in a bucket of water in the lounge room? Crikey intern Grace Ryan explains which councils do Christmas tree recycling.

Seinfeld’s Festivus for the rest of us, a Christmas celebration involving a pole with no decorations, an airing of grievances and feats of physical strength, is no longer just a mock holiday found only on TV screens.